U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,707 to Katz discloses a telephonic interface statistical analysis system which can be utilized in conjunction with auction sales. U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,252 to Osborne discloses an interactive commercial/entertainment network. The Katz system utilizes a Touch Tone or DTMF telephone unit as an input. The Osborne system utilizes a especially configured remote control input unit, provided to each patron in a theater or a data acquisition location, to select one or more items displayed in the theater. U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,023 to Katz discloses another telephonic interface statistical analysis system which utilizes a Touch Tone telephone as an input. U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,482 to DeAngelis discloses a home merchandise ordering telecommunications terminal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,051 to Pirelli discloses a point of supply, use and distribution process and apparatus. To dispense inventory to consumers, the Pirelli system utilizes a card imprinted with a personal user bar code or optical scan code.
In Israel, a magazine called "The Country Auction" enables purchasers, reviewing the magazine, to bid on products and services illustrated in the magazine. This Israeli magazine includes photographs of the products offered for sale, the suggested retail price for those products, and information regarding when bids can be made on those products. Potential bidders place a telephone call to a call center in order to place one or more bids on certain products or services offered in the Israeli magazine. After the close date, the highest bid for the particular product or service is accepted by the magazine's operator while excluding bids from a single bidder which are greater than the lowest high bid from that single bidder. The operators of The Country Auction magazine system collect a fee for each bid placed by a caller.